Australian Financial Review 24 September 2012

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) has run a useful tertiary education section, with 5-6 items, in its Monday edition for some time. But with the appointment of Tim Dodd (formerly media director at IDP) as editor of the section, it has been considerably vamped up. The 24 September edition has 20 items, including a couple of opinion pieces by vice-chancellors and features by Erica Cervini who covered higher education issues (and may still) for The Age. Like The Australian Higher Education Supplement and Campus Review, the AFR has a paywall, so you have to subscribe to access the online site (or pay $3 for the Monday print edition). Massive Open Online Learning (MOOC) features strongly in this edition, with the news that the University of Queensland plans to partner with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the leaders in the field, to offer online courses free to the public and to pioneer ways of using the free online option for on-campus students.

Short, sharp and global MBAs, based at home
Investa Property Group’s Campbell Hanan has spent 18 months assessing business plans in Bangalore, working with a Silicon Valley software group, and pondering the decline of the French wine industry – via a local MBA.

Calling on the Indiana Jones factor
Renowned art historian and director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne, Chris McAuliffe, is on a mission to bring university galleries out of the shadows and into mainstream teaching and research.

Diary of a MOOC
The train ride from Sydney’s Town Hall Station to Macquarie University lasts 25 minutes. For a few weeks this year, the train is my classroom. I spend my commuting time learning a programming language called Python.

Hartley appointment at UWA
Leading economist Peter Hartley has been appointed to the newly created position of BHP Billiton Chair in the Business of Resources at the University of Western Australia.

Counting treasure
Universities are sitting on a mountain of irreplaceable treasures tracing the history and culture of not only Australia, but other parts of the world.

PhD students need to become masters
Macquarie University has struck a deal with the federal government which will allow it to proceed with a new postgraduate research degree structure aligned to global norms.

Universities must wake to the new age
Universities in Australia and other Western nations are property-rich, inflexible, slow institutions losing international market share with desperate need to cut costs.

Online MBAs: Modern class warfare
Business schools are revamping on-campus classes and using new technologies for online programs so MBA students can engage more with their peers and lecturers.

University of Queensland teams with MIT to go online
The University of Queensland has joined the rush and will offer massive open online courses free to the public via the internet in the next two years. It will establish a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the leading US universities developing the courses.

The Scan

The Scan is produced by Inter Mediate, a Melbourne based public policy consulting practice, with a focus on education and training issues, particularly higher education.
The Scan reviews topical issues in the tertiary education sector and places them in a broader context.